Unlocking Success: The Vital Role of Grants for Small Businesses

In recognition of Small Business Week, I thought to reflect back the importance of grants for small businesses. Now, more than ever, business financing is a challenge. Companies who planned ahead secured a line of credit well in advance of needing it, while others who survived the pandemic feared the word ‘debt’ more than any other word in the dictionary. 

As a result, many of those we work with look into Granted Consulting because they either:

• Applied for funding during the COVID years and want to take into more grants,
• Assume grant exists for their business as a result of their niche, industry, or demographic,
• Heard that others in their industry are getting grants and have developed the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and/or
• Want to further invest in their business and seek financing options to reduce their risks. 

What most small businesses don’t realize is that grants have changed significantly over the last couple of years. Gone are the days of expense offsets for rent or salaries. Instead, the government is also tightening the money belt to ensure that businesses reduce their reliance on federal support and recover on their own accord. 

Here are a few changes we’ve seen take place since earlier this year:

1. More programs have launched this year to do with increasing innovation, collaboration, capacity, and competitiveness of Canadian businesses. These programs* include:

• CDAP 
• Horizon AI 
• BC Manufacturing Jobs Grant 
• Grown Ontario Marketing Initiative 
• International Technology Partnership Program 

Granted clients and GetGranted subscribers have access to the ‘Coles Notes’ for these grants, a nice timesaver for busy entrepreneurs who want to read details in simplified bullet points.

2. Funding programs have more limited funds and an increase in applications, resulting in a more competitive grant process. 

3. Waitlists are common for grants that have regular application intakes, this means two things: If you aren’t ready to go, you’ll miss out. If you don’t move quickly with an approval, they could reallocate your funds to someone else. 

What can you do to get ahead of grants? 

• Communicate changes taking place in your organization with your grant consultant. The more we know, the better we can strategize the best programs and application timing for you.
• Think ahead: what are you doing next quarter that could warrant support from the government? 
• Track your grant notifications from GetGranted and ping us to walk through a grant with you that could be leveraged in the next month or so.
• Keep stakeholders informed during the application process to streamline next steps; sometimes, submissions made earlier in the application intake increases your success in securing funding.